Data in the latest United Nations Human Development Report shows that nearly half of Malawians remain trapped in multidimensional poverty while the country’s human development progress is among the slowest in the world.
Released on May 6 2025 and titled ‘A matter of choice: People and possibilities in the age of artificial intelligence’, the report ranks Malawi 172 out of 193 countries on the Human Development Index (HDI) with a score of 0.517, which falls within the low human development category.
The HDI is a composite measure of a country’s average achievements in health, education and income.
Further, the findings show that 49.9 percent of Malawians are experiencing deprivation across several indicators, including nutrition, school attendance and access to clean energy.
Produced by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the statistics show that Malawi’s gross national income (GNI) per capita has also declined steadily over the past five years, reflecting rising economic vulnerability and stagnant income growth.
Based on 2021 purchasing power parity (PPP), GNI per capita fell from $1 708 in 2019 to $1 634 in 2023, a cumulative drop of 4.3 percent. Despite post-pandemic recovery efforts, income levels have yet to return to pre-Covid-19 highs.
The inequality-adjusted HDI for Malawi is 0.365, signifying a 29.4 percent loss due to disparities in access to education, healthcare and income. The persistent development gap between men and women further underscores structural inequality.
Reacting to the report in an interview yesterday, Centre for Social Concern (CfSC) economic governance programme officer Agness Nyirongo said Malawi’s 29.4 percent loss in HDI due to inequality and low gender equality ranking reflected systemic flaws in the country’s development framework.
She said the figures show that while policies may deliver growth, they are not delivering equity.
“Marginalised groups, especially women, rural communities and low-income households, remain excluded from meaningful progress,” said Nyirongo.
Civil Society Education Coalition executive director Benedicto Kondowe pointed to long-standing weaknesses in the education sector, a critical driver of human development.
“These severely limit learning outcomes and thus blunt education’s potential to drive human development,” he said, citing overcrowded classrooms, underqualified teachers, and inadequate learning materials.
Between 2019 and 2023, Malawi’s HDI for women inched from 0.494 to 0.497, while the figure for men rose from 0.533 to 0.537. Over the same period, the country’s Gender Development Index fluctuated between 0.925 and 0.934, placing Malawi in Group three out of five—denoting medium gender parity.
However, the Gender Inequality Index weakened slightly, rising from 0.577 in 2019 to 0.581 in 2023. This suggests continued barriers to female empowerment, reproductive health access, and participation in the labour force.
To address the longstanding issues on human development and inequality, Nyirongo called for a shift to equity-driven planning that includes gender-responsive budgeting, decentralised development, and targeted investments in deprived districts.
She cautioned that current inequalities risk creating a “two-speed economy” that benefits a few while leaving the majority behind.
Nyirongo said that the 2025 HDI findings should challenge Malawi’s commitments under the Sustainable Development Goals and Malawi 2063, particularly the pillar on inclusive wealth creation.
“Without addressing structural barriers such as discriminatory laws and unequal access to resources, Malawi will struggle to realise its development vision,” she said.
Speaking separately, National Planning Commission spokesperson Thom Kanje observed that the inadequate progress on HDI meant that authorities will have to expedite efforts to implement the first phase of the Malawi 2063, the country’s long-term development strategy which seeks to transform the country into an inclusively wealthy and self-sustaining lower middle-income economy by 2030.
“Of course, the low growth years of 2021 to 2025 means we have to accelerate implementation of the MIP-1 and work much harder to achieve growth way above the six percent that was required for us to meet MIP-1 targets,” he said.
Officials from the Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs as well as the Ministry of Gender, Community Development and Social Welfare were yet to respond to our questionnaires by press time at 9pm yesterday.
In an earlier interview, UNDP country representative Fenella Frost warned that Malawi’s exposure to climate-related risks has increased significantly.
“Earlier this year, 44 percent of the national maize crop was devastated by drought, prompting a state of disaster in 23 out of 28 districts,” she said during the launch of the Global Environmental Trust Fund’s window in Lilongwe.
“And with only 2.5 percent of the population covered by any form of insurance, millions of Malawians are left exposed and vulnerable to the next climate shock.”
The concerns on rising inequality follow an Oxfam report showing that the wealthiest 10 percent in Malawi control more than 30 percent of the country’s wealth.
